More from Cohoes And The Crescent Branch

Steve Lackmann has dug through his archives again and provided us with more from the Crescent Branch!

(Captions By Steve Lackmann)

Here's a peaceful winter-shot of the T&S ROW in Cohoes. The view is looking south toward the Columbia St. overpass. The straight-away is
over the old Marsolais coal facility and the arch-trestle on Columbia Street.

Here's the same view, sans the snow. This is the switch-stand that stood at the south entrance of the old T&S Cohoes-Yard just south of High Street in Cohoes.

This northbound train on the T&S is bound for the Ford plant off of Route 9 in Latham. The flatcar behind the caboose is loaded with Ford bucket assemblies that will be assembled onto tractor bodies at the plant. This train is northbound at the site of the old passenger station at High Street in Cohoes. The old station was located at the right and the beginning of the station platform can be seen just ahead of the power. This picture dates from PC operation of the line in the early 1970s.

This picture was taken during D&H operation of the line in the mid 1970s. The train is coming off of the ‘runaround’ track at Latham, just having switched the Ford plant and Reepmeyer’s Feed off of Fonda Road. The main track is on the right. The train is heading south toward Cohoes and eventually the D&H main at Green Island for a run to the North Gate at the old Colonie shops.

A light southbound D&H RS3 coming from switching at the Ford plant off or Route 9 in Colonie. The short train is about to cross the Lansing Lane crossing in Cohoes in this approximately 1976 photo. Lansing Lane is behind the photographer, Division Street is on the right hand side.

This is a shot of the same southbound train heading over the route 470 (Columbia Street) overpass in Cohoes.

This is a photo of the old Garner Street viaduct in Cohoes. I am standing on the old railroad right of way looking eastward. There was once a wye here
that was taken up sometime during the 1950s. The end of the wye ran under the viaduct and serviced a warehouse that was used to store goods produced
from the former Harmony Mills as well as other textile mills that were located here. If you look carefully, the remains of the south leg of the wye can be seen in the foreground. The viaduct was taken down and filled in during the 1980s at approximately the same time as the railroad was abandoned. The legs of the wye are also partially filled in and grown over with little trace of the railroad remaining. If you are on the bike path today, you have to look carefully to see a few remaining ties and timbers from an old retaining wall on the south leg of the wye just north of the Vliet St. culvert. The warehouse is also gone with homes now occupying the site near Hamilton St. and Jay St.

The northbound PC switcher to Ford has just stopped over the High Street bridge in Cohoes so the crew can get some refreshment at the old Convenient Food Mart on Garner Street before heading north. The former St. Agnes church is visible in the background

Another shot of the same train stopped at High Street. In this northward view, you can see the original 3 track alignment over the High Street bridge. The main track is on the left, the abandoned center track was originally a yard track and the right hand track went to the old New York Central freight house that was located where the modern brick store now stands.

This is another north facing view of the same train. The flatcar with the Ford buckets has reporting marks for the Grand Trunk Railway. By the time these photos were taken in the early 1970s, the lead to the site of the old freight house had been spiked out of service.

This view is looking northbound on the right of way behind the Norlite plant in Cohoes. This retaining wall was located just north of the point where the
railroad ran under present day Route 7. The remains of this portion of the railroad can be glimpsed by looking northward when you just begin to climb
the hill driving westbound on Route 7.

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